When WAEC was WAEC: Back in the days

Yet again, Nigerian students fare poorly in WAEC examination.  It’s time to go back to the basics

Only 38.68 per cent of the 1.593 million students, who sat the 2015 West African Senior Schools Certificate Examination (WASSCE), passed with credits in five subjects including English Language and Mathematics.  That is another sobering reminder of the deep-rooted nature of the educational challenges currently facing Nigeria.

Most of the statistics released by the Nigerian National Office of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) make for depressing reading: 118,101 candidates had their results withheld because of alleged involvement in examination malpractices; 47.62 per cent obtained six credits and above; 59.61 per cent obtained five credits and above; 86.40 per cent obtained one credit and above.

In spite of the seemingly encouraging nature of these other figures, the five-credit including English Language and Mathematics benchmark is an appropriate measure of general performance because it represents the minimum standard for entry into the nation’s universities.

Over the years, the performance of senior secondary school students in a major public examination has given administrators, educators, parents and other concerned stakeholders much cause for worry. Marginal improvements do nothing to hide the harsh fact that the country is turning out an increasing number of students who will clearly be unable to hold their own in a world distinguished by the global knowledge economy.

The implications of this predicament are dire. As Africa’s largest economy, Nigeria is in desperate need of the artisans and professionals who will continue to drive its growth. If the country cannot be guaranteed a steady supply of intelligent and trainable youths who can become a formidable corps of skilled manpower, its future will be in jeopardy. As hundreds of thousands of unemployable young people pour into the labour market, it is certain that the social problems confronting the country will only continue to become more widespread and intractable.

Ironically, successive governments have been only too aware of these facts. Education traditionally receives the largest share of the budget after defence. In the 2015 Appropriation Bill, it actually displaced defence to get the biggest cut: N392.36 billion, compared to the latter’s N388.80 billion.

Part of the problem is that these huge funds are not often properly targetted. In states across the federation, primary, secondary and tertiary educational institutions are characterized by decrepit infrastructure, poorly-motivated staff, and widespread shortages of educational consumables, textbooks and equipment.

At a more fundamental level, however, it appears that the perennially poor performances in WASSCE stem from the shallow educational foundations being laid in many of the nation’s primary schools. Primary school education is the responsibility of states and local governments, and far too many of them restrict themselves to the payment of salaries as opposed to pursuing policies aimed at their overall development.

Although states like Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Edo, Ekiti, Lagos, Kano and Ondo have achieved relatively good results in strengthening primary school education, there are still many obstacles to overcome. Funding is one, seen in the mystifying reluctance of many states to access grants available under the Universal Basic Education Scheme (UBES). As at January 2014, some N47 billion had not been utilized by the states because of their inability to provide counterpart funding.

Another problem is the intransigence of teachers’ unions whose adamant opposition to proficiency testing of teachers has made it difficult to raise standards in the teaching profession and thereby improve the quality of teaching.

In essence, Nigeria has created for itself a vicious cycle: badly-taught primary school pupils go to poorly-managed secondary schools where they are processed through the various classes until they get to WASSCE, where their cumulative inadequacies are brutally exposed.

If the country is truly determined to achieve better overall performances in WASSCE and similar public examinations, it will have to return to the basics – the primary schools, where excellence can either be carefully nurtured, or strangled at birth.

SOURCE: The Nation